Since I began writing I’ve heard the horror stories.

I sent in a query and never heard back.

Such and Such agent/editor has had my partial for nine months and still nothing.

She asked for sample pages and responded eleven months later.

So, when I sent out my query and thought “I’ll have a week of and then can start a slow read of my manuscript to take care of all the little stuff,” I didn’t think this would be a problem.

Then it began – the request for partials came any where from one hour and forty-eight minutes to not yet (two weeks later and only on the snail-mail queries.)

I’ll admit it. I’m shocked. I had been programmed to believe that the publish industry moves like molasses from start to finish. Apparently, it starts like shooting the rapids and slows to a meandering river.

And then the real shocker – A request for a Full (note the capitalization)

Now, with all the little things to do, I’ve canceled every other aspect of my life I could: Dinners with friends, hearing speakers, going to the movies, reading.

It’s amazing how long the ‘little things’ take. Sure, each one really does take just a second or two, but how many are there? Are you sure you got them all? Did changing one make you go back to adjust another?

So, take this as a cautionary tale. Polishing should be done before Querying. I know they say that, and we all think --- “But I’m going to have weeks, maybe months, before I hear back from anyone.”

Don’t do it.

Learn from me.

And Go Write,

-bria

Over this past month here at the Purple Hearts, we have talked about writer burnout, motivation, writing in multiple genres and keeping it fresh . . . and a post this week from Mai Thao of the Title Magic blog encapsulates all of those things when she writes about her "MID-LIFE" WRITING CRISIS. What's especially motivating about this post is that she went from taking a break from writing to making it into the American Title IV contest (as well as being a semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award). Go Mai! To read her post, click HERE.

As an unpublished writer we face so many unknowns. When will The Call ever come? Will I ever get paid for this? Kristin Nelson from the Nelson Literary Agency has a helpful post this week on PAYMENT SCHEDULES. To read her insight on this important matter, click HERE.

We reference a number of agent blogs in our weekly what's new post, and Jonathan Lyons from Lyons Literary LLC had a post this week that pointed out the grains of salt we can all take when it comes to the variety of opinions shared by agent bloggers. For his post, click HERE.

We have often talked about compiling a glossary of all the publishing terms that a newbie confronts when first walking into a writer's group or chapter meeting and the Guide to Literary Agents Editor's Blog posted a series called WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? LITERARY DEFINITIONS. To read Volume 4 of the series (posted this week), click HERE.

Our last two references for the week relate to one another in that they talk about sending materials to an agent via email.

The first, from the swivet, gives HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS FOR SUBMITTING A PARTIAL VIA EMAIL. Read it HERE.

And finally, WHAT NATHAN SAID. To find WNS about FORMALITY IN QUERY LETTERS, click HERE.

And there you have it! If you have your own go-to posts for the week, we would love for you to share them by posting to the comments section.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here we go, in no particular order:

The week started off in fine fashion when a Purple Hearts favorite, Kathy Carmichael, guested at the Plot Monkeys blog. (The pages on her web site about synopsis writing offer life-saving measures!) She wrote a fabulous post on HOW TO GIVE YOUR READERS THAT AH! ENDING.   Kathy always has great insight and helpful tips, so we encourage you to take a glimpse at her post by clicking HERE.

And speaking of synopsis writing, there is a new PLOT SYNOPSIS PROJECT taking place over at Live Journal.  This project defines the synopsis and a number of authors have posted samples of their work.  To take a gander at these helpful examples, click HERE.

When we stumbled across JA Konrath's blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing, we couldn't believe we hadn't found it sooner -- the content is so up our alley!  This week we found a helpful and motivational post on DEALING WITH DISCOURAGEMENT.   This multi-published thriller author even offers some great tricks to help face down the discouragement demons.  To find those tricks, click HERE.

Although our focus here is on novel writing, the principles of screenwriting are great additional tools  to help hone your fiction craft.  There are a number of similarities between the two, which is why we wanted to recommend an entry from the Screenwriting Goldmine blog.  The post on EASY STEPS TO POLISH YOUR FIRST DRAFT has some spot-on advice that will apply whether you are polishing your script of buffing up your book.  To see what those tips are, click HERE. 

We find some invaluable information in agent blogs, and Caren Johnson has done something  that we think is a great practice -- while she still posts information to her blog, she has re-purposed her blog to feature active posts from her clients.  We loved this two-part series this week on PROMO 101.  To link to Lesson 2 (a link to Lesson 1 is featured in the post), click HERE.

In talking about agent blogs,  we would be remiss if we didn't mention Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown.  Even though we try to vary up the sources we cite every week, we could go every Friday and refer back to something Nathan said over the course of the week.  So . . . we have decided to end each Friday's What's New In Publishing segment with a note from Nathan -- or, as we affectionately call it, WHAT NATHAN SAID.  Click HERE for WNS this week on TRUST AND COMMUNICATION.  

And there you have it -- our picks for the week ending March 21.   Have a great weekend, and we'll look forward to seeing you again next week! 

Jungle Red Writers is a group blog comprised of five mystery authors: Jan Brogan, Hallie Ephron, Rosemary Harris, Roberta Isleib, and Hank Phillippi Ryan.  When we saw their post on Writing Hangovers, we felt it was closely kindred to our entries this week on burnout.  We appreciated hearing that other writers (especially these talented and accomplished ladies) experience little blips on their productivity screens too! 

 Hey, There's a Dead Guy in the Living Room is a blog for Mystery Publishing, From Idea to Bookshelf. Every Sunday, Pocket editor Abby Zidle shares an editor's perspective and this week's post on Why Your Editor Wants You to Have An Agent was a timely one for us as we start to rev up for pitches and queries. 

One of our favorite blog sights offered two posts this week that not only featured great advice for bloggers, but timeless advice for writers in any medium as well.  The first Pro Blogger entry we want to share is Supercharge Your Content With Voice  . . . which, as writers, we know is what helps make us as unique as our fingerprints.  

And since authors experience those ups and downs that call upon having a thick skin, we thought we'd also throw in this post from Pro Blogger on How to Deal with Blog Hecklers.   

We started the Purple Hearts blog to help foster a community of writers, so it seems fitting to share this post from Magical Musings on What I Learned From Other Writers.  We loved how the references were to authors past and present. 

We hope you all have a great weekend, and want to end today's post by sharing this motivational entry -- Try Not, Do Or Do Not, There Is No Try -- from entrepreneur and life strategist, Dominic Siano. (The title of the post is a line of dialogue attributed to Yoda!) 

Before the day is out, please stop in at Barbara Vey's Beyond
Her Book blog at Publishers Weekly. Today is Barbara's one year blogging aniversary and she is planning an online party to include lots of giveaways.

She would like to take the message to the PW bigwigs that a place is needed and wanted to talk about all kinds of books in general and romance specifically. To make the message strong, let's help her blow them away with numbers! Please go to Barbara's blog today, Friday, March 14. Read and/or post a comment to the blog so we can help Barbara hit record numbers and send a strong message to PW! Plus, who knows what you might win in the giveaway!
Click HERE to join in the fun.

C'mon back next Friday when we'll again post the entries we've found and would like to share from the week's publishing and book blogs.  

Have a great writing week!       

For our first week's re-cap, we decided to share:

From the Book Ends, LLC blog, author Angie Fox shares the "Three Things I Had To Do In Order to Sell." Check out Angie's insight HERE.

Nathan Bransford, literary agent from Curtis Brown LTD, has a great publishing and book-related blog. One post this week caught our eye, namely the one in which he discusses just "How Long Does It Take To Sell a Novel?" To read Nathan's post, click HERE.  

We loved this next entry from Pro Blogger because although the tips listed are tips for bloggers, the advice resonates pretty loudly for writers as well. To read, the "8 Lessons Bloggers Can Learn From Sony," click HERE.

Bella Stander posts great advice on her blog when it comes to author promotion and publicity. This week, she shares the results from an author publicity survey she recently conducted with authors actively 'out there' making things happen for their books. To read some of those authors' responses, click HERE.

And, yes, we admit to being biased, but one of our favorite blog posts from the week happened right here at the Purple Hearts when Mary Buckham and Dianna Love stopped by to offer advice, encouragement, and support for writers trying to "Break Into Fiction - What It Takes to Get Published Today". To read their excellent post, click HERE.

And don't forget, at the end of the day today (Friday), we'll be drawing the names of two lucky winners for Mary and Dianna's generous giveaway.

One winner will receive a set of 5 BREAK INTO FICTION™ templates from the highly successful Break Into Fiction™ Template Teaching Series (www.BreakIntoFiction.com).

The second is a critique of your query or cover letter to get you one step closer to a dynamite proposal package.

We hope you find these posts as helpful as we did.

Enjoy, then go write!

An Agent by any other name...

I'm very visual - I need a logical way to look at information or it might as well be street graffiti. At first everyone laughed at me, but now they've started asking for Bria Agent Search Spreadsheets for themselves (maybe I should start charging!)

I won't lie. It is time consuming in the front-end. But later, when the querying begins, it will keep you on track and organized as well as stopping your focus from drifting to time wasting (and embarrassing) querying of agents who don't rep what you write.

So, breaking this down in very easy steps, here we go:

My main passion and focus is YA Fantasy, but I also have ideas for a RomCom and a historical (which may be YA, Women's Lit, or Romance - depending on who you ask) so my focus groups are: Fantasy, YA, Romance, and ChickLit. You'll have your own, but we'll stick with mine for these examples

This is very easy if you've never done it before.Open it up and then save it as "Agent Search."

Across the top create a column for each of the following:Agent Name, Agency, Solicit?, Email, YA, Fantasy, Rom, ChLit, RWA, P&E, Exp, TOTAL, Authors, Notes

Step 3 - Link to: http://www.agentquery.com/search_advanced.aspx

From the list below, choose all your writing genres and search

Step 4 - List creationThis is the longest part. Cut and paste each page into your spreadsheet and then line up the information with columns. Put an "1" under each genre the agent reps. You may want to consider weighting one genre heavier than others - for example, my future agent MUST rep YA, so that column gets a "2" instead of a "1."

So you may have notice that you still have RWA, P&E, Exp, and TOTAL, left.
RWA (Romance Writers of America) is a very reputable group. Whether you write romance or not, you should consider joining. The group is highly focused on Craft and many agents have said they can often tell a person is an RWA member from their clean manuscript.

If the agency/agent is RWA certified, add another "1"

P&E (Preditors and Editors) as another amazing resource. They list everyone in the industry they're aware of. If they give an agency/agent a "highly recommends" add a "2" - a "recommends" add a "1" ------ they'll also let you know if they "highly don't recommend ("-2"), "don't recommend" ("-1"), or if they are listed on "Writer Beware" ("-3")

Exp stands for "Experience." Jessica is my go-to girl on this. Industry answers roll off her tongue and she does a run by rating for me. Also, I look at blogs, talk to other writers, read articles. One of my top 10 agents was bumped off my list completely because of her attitude toward her clients and potential clients on her blog. You want to know this ahead of time. Use the same rating system as P&E.

TOTAL - create a sum total column for each row and then sort by the TOTAL column.

The last two columns are just as important. You should always be familiar with the authors an agent already reps. It lets you know what they like and where they succeed. Also, it allows you to ‘sell' yourself better (see Jessica's blog HERE.)

The Notes column should be for things like industry updates, reminders about appearances (online and in person) you'd like to attend, site updates (agents sometimes stop taking queries for a short time), contests they're judging, etc.

All this information comes together on one page to let you judge and weigh the agents to see if they're a potential fit. Make sure you check out Jessica's blog to get a bigger picture of the whole search.

This is a great step in running your writing career as just that - a CAREER.

As always - if you have questions or comments we'd love to hear them. Start planning your career and then Go Write!-bria

Before I got involved in conference planning I had heard a lot of the tips that I’ll pass on today, but I didn’t ‘get it’ until put in the position of trying to identify the industry professionals who would offer the widest array of possibilities to the hopeful writers attending our conference. The trial-by-fire and the pressure to build a satisfying conference forced me to pick up these trade secrets in a hurry.

Some of my advice might sound pretty intuitive, and if that’s the case then, Congratulations! You have a pretty steady handle on how to conduct your market research and make educated decisions about the best agents to query or pitch to for your material. But for those of you who haven’t yet entered a comfort zone with this stuff, I hope the following tips will help get you on your way.

Other than read, read, read, read, read and write, write, write, write, write . . .

The primary task I want you to do is to really think about the project you want to shop around. Where does it fit in the market? If you write paranormal romance, do you write hot and sexy vampire suspense like J.R. Ward or chick lit time travel like Marianne Mancusi? Perhaps it’s more like YA witches as found in Kelly McClymer’s books or a YA ghost hunter found in Marley Gibson’s new series? Whatever the case, I suggest starting by identifying at least THREE books that most closely resemble the project you want to sell. (The more books you can identify, the greater your market research will be.)

To my way of thinking, if an agent represents a certain kind of book they would likely represent similar material. So your end goal is to find out who represented (and who bought) those three books (or more) that most closely resemble yours.

1. Many, but certainly not all, published authors thank their agents and editors in the acknowledgement pages of their books. So the easiest (and free!) place to start is to go to your local bookstore and thumb through the acknowledgment pages of each of those target books.

Once you obtain the information, go to the Writer’s Reference section of the bookstore and look at the most recent edition of Jeff Hermann’s Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, and Literary Agents. He updates this resource every year, to include the names and addresses of agents and their agencies and what they are looking to acquire along with instructions as to how to query them.

2. What to do when the information is not contained in the author’s acknowledgement page? The next resource I’d recommend using is not a free service, but at $20 per month I think it’s one of the best investments you can make on the business side of your writing career. That resource is an online subscription to Publishers Marketplace.

With a subscription to PM, you can search the archives for every deal reported back to the year 2000 – searching by author name, agent name, editor name, agency, or publishing house. This tool is invaluable not only to search what projects have most recently sold by and to whom, but to also determine if an agent shows a historical pattern for representation. A great example is the historical romance market. For the past few years I’ve heard many people in the romance industry say that historicals were dead. Well, some people were still buying and selling historicals during that period, and a quick search of those authors’ names will yield the agents and editors involved in the deals.

Publishers Marketplace is also a great resource for publishing news – especially when an agent or editor leaves her current agency or house for another one. Or if an editorial assistant gets bumped up to start acquiring her own list or an agent branches out on her own.

I understand when budgets are tight, so if a subscription to Publishers Marketplace is not feasible at the moment, the web site offers a free watered-down version of industry news called Publishers Lunch, which comes out every Monday. Anyone can subscribe – free – to Pub Lunch by signing up on the PM home page. Monthly paid-subscription holders receive the full Lunch version every week.

PM has other cool features – such as the opportunity to register yourself on the site. Not all authors are registered, however, which is the one downside when searching for deals concerning them.

3. To get a sense of an agent’s preference or style, conduct a web search on the agent’s name and their agency. The web sites often have bios for each of their agents as well as a list of the authors they represent and titles sold. Agent blogs are also a great learning tool when it comes to style and preferences. A list of many agent blogs can be found on the Absolute Write web site.

4. Historical Author, Cynthia Sterling, also has a great newsletter whereby she shares Market News on what’s happening in the romance genre. Her information is timely and accurate and often gives me great scoop when I cannot find the information elsewhere. And after every RWA National Conference, she posts a wrap up of all of the publisher spotlights – a great way to find out what kinds of projects the editors are looking to acquire. I highly recommend subscribing to this free newsletter by clicking on last left-hand link on her web site.

And certainly those aren’t the only ways to arrive at your list of choices, but I hope those tips give you a place to start. Some people will advise you to start with a much larger list and narrow down from there . . . which I think will work, too.

As an aside . . .

Jessica Faust of BookEnds LLC posted this recent blog entry on finding the interpersonal connection in your agent search.

And Kristin Nelson of the Nelson Literary Agency, also has a blog post where she lists some potential questions to ask that agent when you get THE CALL.

One other note – a reputable agency will never ask you for money up front. If an agent tells you that you need to pay them a chunk of change before they will represent you, my advice is to run far and run fast.

I believe that selling your book is all a matter of luck and timing – getting the right project into the right hands at the right time. The bigger the net you cast, the greater your chances.

And it’s never too early to start your research!

I hope this information helps and that it will lead to finding a good home for your book! And the best thing you can do when sending out queries and awaiting responses? KEEP WRITING!

Check out Bria's take on organizing your search HERE. 

-Jessica

Everyone has blogs they check out everyday/week, so I thought I’d throw a couple non-heartlette/non-diva blogs about writing up there. I’d love to hear what other writers are reading – I’m always looking to learn something new!

1. I love agent blogs – I learn so much and have several I read on a regular basis because I’m planning on querying them, but for my Must Read Agent Blog of the moment, I’m nominating Nathan Bransford – Yup, like the other 1000 people that read this Curtis Brown agent’s blog daily, I’m a totally groupie. Nathan has a down to earth way of looking at his job, the publishing industry, and pop culture TV. Check him out HERE.

2. For a more no-nonsense look at the publishing world for writers, I’m linking to AuthorMBA – timely, accurate, informative. Check it out HERE

3. I’ll admit it, I’m totally cheating on this one: Books, Boys, Buzz is one of my favorite blogs – and why, you might ask, is that cheating? Well, it links out to several other blogs that I read. They’re an amazing group of YA writers with some great books under their belt – I challenge everyone to pick up a YA book in the coming year - and enjoy it as a reader and a writer - I'd love to hear what you learn! - Try one of these HERE

4. The Wet Noodle Posse has been blogging together for several years – their stories are inspiring, motivational and informative – they kept me going thru my Golden Heart Prep and deserve a special thanks just for that! This amazing group of women blog HERE 

5. Finally – Kate Elliot’s blog as my single writer blog this month. She puts out a lot of great information about how she writes and writing in general. I linked to her a while back for the amazing series of blog posts she did on “Advice For The First Time sff Novelist” – which is great for everyone, not just science fiction/fantasy writers. You can find that, and more HERE

So, what am I missing (besides my amazing Diva girls) – any must reads you can’t seem to skip? Let me know and then Go Write.

-bria

The bundle includes the following titles:

Slave to Sensation by Nalini Singh 
Parallel Attraction by Deidre Knight
Undercover in High Heels by Gemma Halliday
Highland Guardian by Melissa Mayhue 
Scions: Resurrection by Patrice Michelle
Now and Zen by Linda Gerber 
90 Minutes in Heaven by Don Piper with Cecil Murphy 

Congratulations! 

Thanks to all of you who paid us a visit. And a special thank you to Elaine for supplying these books and for spending a most enjoyable, informative, and helpful week with us Purple Hearts. It's been awesome!

Hello everyone! Thanks so much for all of your awesome comments. To any of you that posted questions I will try to answer them on the corresponding thread within the next few days.

Over the last couple of posts I have chatted about the things we can never hear too many times and the things that we know that are sometimes easy to forget. That leaves me with a list of things that I never knew the full extent of until this year. The things I want to list off today are things that I suspected or I had a general feeling about, but were reinforced 100% in my mind this year. These are things that I will never underestimate and never re-neg on, regardless of the circumstances. Sounds intense huh? Don’t worry, its not, I just wanted to try to pump up the dramatic effect. J It’s another late night, bear with me!

The first thing is the icky one that I just want to get out of the way. It’s depressing and unfortunate but the cold hard truth. The rejection never ends. Regardless of where you are in your career, or what chair you are sitting in, rejection is a fact of this business. I am not saying this to be a downer, not at all, but I think it’s important for people to realize the facts up front. I have found that there are a lot of authors that are disillusioned and eventually disappointed when they learn that simply having an agent doesn’t guarantee a path paved with golden yeses.

Here’s the thing about this little devilish fact. We are all in this together. You face rejection, we face rejection. Just because we are on the other side of the fence doesn’t mean that we have all the easy routes either. Ask any agent. For every book they sell there is going to be a certain number that they couldn’t place. For every editor that they get to look at a project there is going to be another that says “this isn’t my cup of tea”. For every new client they sign on, there is going to be client that perhaps chose to go another route. For every successful book that we represent, there is one that we passed up that just hit a list. Again, these are just the facts. This business is in many cases a bit of a gamble, you win some, you lose some.

The reason that I am pointing this out is not to be discouraging, but it’s so you can understand that we the agents are not insensitive beasts. We all know the painful sting of disappointment, and we have all have shared the same feelings of confusion, hurt, anger, self-doubt etc. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Remember that. Only the strong survive in this business so it’s best to toughen up your skin early on, because the road doesn’t get any easier after the first “yes” you find.

Ok. Big Sigh. Glad I got that one off of my chest. I had been dreading it all week but I knew I had to get it on the list somewhere.

This next one isn’t nearly as deep, but people ask me about it frequently. Since I participate in a pretty heavy circuit I figured I would throw my two cents in for those of you that might be on the fence. In my opinion, conferences are invaluable tools. I have been a traveling machine this year. I have been across the country and back. I have met folks from Denver, DC, Surrey Canada, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Dallas, New Jersey, Oklahoma, you name it, the list goes on. The thing that amazes me is that at each of these destinations, regardless of their differences, I have found a group of motivated and talented authors that are all as excited about this business as I am. The workshops, key-note speeches, and networking opportunities are 9 times out of 10 impeccable. These resources are invaluable come Monday morning when you find yourself back in front of your computer.

Your job as an author can be a very isolating one. The majority of the time it is just you vs the computer. Conferences are your chance to break that cycle. Get out there and chat and learn from other folks that know EXACTLY what it is to be in your shoes. Brainstorm, cultivate ideas, listen to other people chat about their inspiration and motivation. Share your processes and your tricks of the trade. I can guarantee at every conference you go to you will pick up at least one piece of information that will make a difference in your writing.

I know that when I talk to people about my job outside of the industry it’s often the case where they just don’t get it. I’m not an author, but I know it has to be the same thing for you. You tell someone you are an author and they say “I’ve always wanted to write a book, I just haven’t found the time”. Right, because that’s all that’s between them and becoming next month’s Featured Selection. Conferences are your opportunity to be understood. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the person you sit next to at lunch won’t think you are nuts if you shout “that’s it” over your over-cooked chicken sandwich.

Conferences are also pretty much guaranteed to re-energize and boost you out of any type of funk you may be in. They are key in reinstating in your mind all the great things about this business.

And notice I didn’t even touch on the hard-core stuff you get from conferences. Workshops from the pros, advice from the experts, answers from the insiders, and a chance to rub elbows with the best in the business. There’s the camaraderie, the chance to get away for the weekend, unlimited room service, a bed all to yourself, and all the free books you could ever ask for. Come on kids, if you were thinking about passing up your local conference this year, please rethink it. Oh, and did I mention, I am going to be at what I believe to be most of your home chapter’s conference this year! (No, that wasn’t all a shameless plug, that just dawned on me moments ago –)

Moving on. Now listen up, this is CRUCIAL must have info in the business. Ok, I’m kidding. I haven’t really had the chance to rant and rave up to this point so I thought I would give it a go here. I hate airports. Really. If I could build a run-way on top of my house, I would. I wouldn’t even care if there were planes taking off and landing hourly from said launch pad. I’m serious. You want to know what to buy me for Christmas? A helicopter. Please.

I have had travel year from hell. And what really stinks, I bet it’s no worse than anyone else’s was. I have dealt with the typical. Missed flights, delayed flights, lost luggage, lost reservations, long lines, overbooked, overpriced, yada, yada, yada. The thing that makes this so terrible, I know this is just the way of it, and you know what that means? I’m only in for more of the same next year. I know how much I dread it, and there isn’t a single thing that I can do to avoid it. Sigh. On a side note here, so perhaps you can actually gain something from this point. Looking for a story idea? Look no further than your local airport. SERIOUSLY. The place is overflowing with bestsellers waiting to happen.

And finally. I’m going to try to wrap my list up. I think this next point is one that is a culmination of many of the things that I have talked about. To me it’s the number one thing we all need to hear, remember and know undoubtedly; you can never have too many friends in this business.

I’m not afraid to say that I am still a bit of a rookie compared to many of you that are reading this blog. With each month that passes I am continuously amazed by the friends and allies that I have made in a fairly short period of time. Not only that, but I have found that these relationships are fundamental to almost my every move.

Going back to what I was saying Tuesday about the little things, Always slow down and take a moment to say hello to those folks that are around you in this business, you never know when it might spark a friendship that will last a lifetime.

The whole reason I am here blogging is a fine example of this. Your very lovely Purple-Heart’er Jessica was the travel liaison for last year’s NEC conference, which I didn’t even attend. Over the months we chatted while coordinating another TKA agent’s travel. During that time we developed a wonderful little friendship in our email exchanges. Now, low and behold I have a friend in New England who I haven’t met who I can talk about my two favorite things with, Books AND football. Seriously, how cool is that? Point being, you just never know. That’s just one reason friends in the business are awesome, they make what is known as your “work” fun.

More on the value of friends, they will be the best promoters you have ever met. When talking about book promotion Gena Showalter instantly pops into my mind. Now as many of you know (and if you don’t, go pick up any of her books and see for yourself) Gena is an incredibly talented writer, in the top of her class if you ask me. Something that makes Gena even more spectacular however is she is the BEST book promoter I have ever met. She sells her friends books like you wouldn’t believe. She buys multiple copies of many of her friends’ books just so she can send them to other people and hook a reader. Seriously, when she is pushing a book you would think she were the sole recipient of 100% of the profits. But she just loves her friends THAT much and wants to help others success.

And speaking of authors selling each others books, let’s tweak this in a slightly different direction. How about the value of endorsement quotes?! You never know when you will find yourself sitting next to the person whose name will help sell thousands of copies of your book.

Then there is the very obvious value to be had in sharing your struggles and triumphs, learning from others mistakes and helping them sideswipe theirs, sharing tips and shortcuts etc etc. etc. I am lucky to call many fellow agents friends. These peers help me going. They help me see past a bad day, they share their previous experiences, they pass on helpful news. They are invaluable to me. They sit and talk and understand and listen like no one else can. Some days they help me see that I’m not crazy, it’s just another day at the job.   

So there you have it, my list for 2007. I think I’ve done talked myself out. Thanks again for having me this week. It’s been my pleasure. I hope to meet many of you in the upcoming years. And if you see me out and about, remember, don’t be afraid to come up and say hello. 

I’m sorry that I’m running a little bit behind today, and this post is going to be a late one, but let me tell you it has just been one of those days! It all started out with these awful power surges that we have been having at the office. It’s been a nuisance but we’ve been dealing with it. That was until yesterday when I opened the refrigerator in the kitchen and suddenly the power strip in my office started smoking. No, these are not even on the same fuse, and no, I’m not kidding. It appears that the light turning on in the fridge was just too much power, can you say fire hazard!? Anyways, we got the electrician to come out today and it turns out a dang squirrel has chewed into our lines causing interrupted power flow and surges. Sigh. So the power company comes out and gets us all patched up. Then what do you know, to add to the fun we find out that the power surge blew our internet router. So no power, no internet, put this on top of a giant release day, two agents heading away on business for the rest of the week, and a big project I’m trying to get out for a client. CHAOS!! Anyways, I think we are squared away and I can finally take a moment to get back to my list making J and yes, with all of the aforementioned chaos, my compulsive list-making has been in full effect this week on many different levels!

 Ok. So, where was I . . . On Sunday I talked about the things that I think we all need to hear over and over again. The things that never tire, grow old, or change. Today I’m going to talk about more things that we all surely know, but that sometimes become a bit less obvious. The things that are easy to forget. The things that are easy to lose sight of during the journey.

 The first thing that I think we all need to be reminded about is the power of reading in the market. Reading can never be underestimated and being too busy is never an excuse.

 This year I really made a valiant attempt to get back into reading for pleasure. For some time I had put it aside because I just didn’t know how to manage if I was going to pick from the personal or the professional pile. 

I had my “slap myself on the forehead” moment in the opening weeks of 2007. I was on a plane heading home from a business trip to NYC. I hadn’t taken my computer (a BIG rarity) and so all I had to keep me busy were 4 books that had been given to me by editors. They all happened to be middle grade books, short, easy reads. Before I knew it, and the day was over I had finished 3 books. Whew, what a breath of fresh air. When I crawled into bed that night I felt so empowered and on top of my game.

I hear so many people say “I just don’t have the time to read for pleasure”. IMHO, that’s a cop-out. Yes, there are many instances late at night when I am curled up with a good book and I probably could be reading a submission that I have in my inbox. However, if I would follow that guilty little pang I can guarantee that two things are going to happen, neither of which are good. One, I’m going to be bitter that I’m still reading for work and I’m going to take it out on the submission in my hand. Two, I’m going to get burnt out, fast and find that I’m not enjoying ANYTHING I read, regardless of how good it is.

Here’s the thing. Reading off of the shelves is refreshing. It reminds us why we do what we do. It reminds us the power a good book holds. It also reminds serves as an educational tool so we have a clue what is working and what isn’t. It gives us a clear and accurate depiction of what is selling and what editors are buying. If I hear a ton of buzz about a book, you better believe I am going to pick it up to see what all the talk is about. It serves in all of our best interest to see what’s working and try to build off of it.

And one more thing to think about on this topic, if as individuals within this profession we stop and say “I don’t have the time to read” then how in the heck do we expect this industry to go on. Every week someone is talking about the decline in book sales. It’s our job to proactively go out there and do whatever it takes to get people excited about the books we are writing and selling. If you haven’t read a good book lately, stop reading this blog right now and go spend your time reading a great story instead!   

For those of you that are on point with me about the reading thing, I’m going to break from my ‘information’ list and bring you a separate list. If you all will let me continue to ramble I thought I would share a few of the best books I have read this year. And let me tell you, I’ve read some AMAZING books; it’s been a good year in publishing!

Hands down my favorite book of the year was The Kommandants Girl by Pam Jenoff. This title was referred to me by someone at Harlequin and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the read. I can’t wait for her next title in 08’. It was a Golden Quill nominee too, so its not just me that thinks it’s awesome!

My favorite adult series was JR Ward’s BLACK DAGGER BROTHERHOOD. I jumped on the band wagon late, but let me tell you, I’m on for good now. My favorite YA series was Stephenie Meyer’s TWILIGHT. I wasn’t quite as in love with Eclipse as the earlier two, but still she has a great thing going. I know both of those series are talked about EVERYWHERE, but seriously, those two women have done some amazing things with their characters, world building and emotional content. And wrapping back to my point above, I heard the buzz and I wanted to be in on what everyone was talking about.

 And then there are the stand alones that just stood out to me. As you’ll see I read across the board. Kristin Hannah’s MAGIC HOUR, Allison van Diepen’s SNITCH, Steven James THE PAWN, Jodi Picoult’s NINETEEN MINUTES, Samantha Graves’ SIGHT UNSEEN, Sohia Nash’s A DANGEROUS BEAUTY, Rachel Vincent’s STRAY, Gena Showalter’s RED HANDED oh and the list could go on . . . but I’ll stop and get back to something more interesting to you all.

 There is one other big thing that I want to talk about in this post, (and then I’ll wrap it up as its getting late and I’m dying to catch the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show!) and that is a friendly little reminder that small acts of kindness will come back around ten-fold.

Of course this is something that I could have put in the last post; it’s another of those things that we of course all know and something that you can never hear too often. However I’m putting it in here because it is something that is SO easy to forget. It is so very easy to forget especially during this period of the year when we are all So Very busy with our own lives and agendas and plans.

I challenge each of you to stop and think about the small things that make a big difference. I know that I am blessed almost daily in this business with a caring gesture by a co-worker, a client or other associate. I was reading the post that was put up yesterday on this very blog about the things that we all have to be thankful for. I think we should be thankful to be a part of this business that is so overflowing with kindness.

I hear so many of my peers talking about their jobs and the dog-eat-dog environment they are surrounded by each day. I love that I have nothing to contribute to these conversations. Remember every action that you take should be one to combat those negative vibes.

 Often times I become overwhelmed with my inbox. I see the emails pouring in and I just can’t quite comprehend how I am going to manage to reply to each email with compassion and energy. It is very easy for me to just skim through my messages and only reply to those that demand my attention. However I’m not a grinch and I avoid that path of action. You know what, it pays. I can’t tell you the friends I have made and the rewards that have poured back my way for taking the time to remember that a person is at the receiving end of each email. I am so rewarded by just the simple “thank-yous” I receive for the things that I do as just a second nature.

 Long story short. Don’t take anything for granted. You are in a very unique and fortunate situation that a very small gesture can make a very large difference in someone else’s life and career!

Thanks for checking back and I look forward to closing out my list on Thursday. I’ve got a few more things to list off, those that you may not have previously thought about but can make a big difference as you move towards 2008! Have a lovely evening! 

First, what are you looking for in an agent or editor? (I'm going to refer to these two essential publication people as a/e from now on to save time and space) Do you want someone who is hands-on and will serve as a coach to guide you through your career or do you want a no-nonsense, only business, give-it-to-me-straight kind of person? Do you need to stay in constant contact with your a/e or do you want to only hear from them when they sell your book? These are things that you'll want to consider as you learn an a/e's management style.

Okay, so you know what you're looking for, but where do you start? Here are some links:
A good place to start is: Preditors and Editors has a comprehensive list of a/e. They also post an occasional warning or accolade for the a/e so you can start getting a hint of who to look for or avoid.

Charlotte Dillon has a page full of interviews with a/e so you can learn personalities and styles. In addition, her website has numerous articles on why you need an agent and what to look out for in dealing with a/e.

If you're a romance writer, The Passionate Pen has a great list of agents that deal with romance.

An agent herself, Kristin Nelson recently shared a list of agents who accept email queries on her blog, Pub Rants .

Believe it or not, there are numerous a/e looking to take advantage. I think there is actually a listing on Preditors and Editors that an agent faked her own death to avoid charges brought up against her. I could be wrong, and apologize if I am, but it amused me. You never know where you'll get an idea for a new book, but that could be one! Anyway, Writer Beware is another website to check to make sure you aren't querying a scam artist.

Candace Havens has a monthly online writing class that has included a month of interviews with agents. A great place to learn some writing skills and gain some inside knowledge of a/e.

I'm sure I'm missing tons of other useful links and sites, probably some obvious ones, so please let me know of them! I could use all the help to send out my own queries!

So send out your queries, e-queries, sample chapters and synopses. You'll never get published if you don't take that chance. Keep us posted! We'd love you to be our next Honorary Heartlette!

-Meg